NASS Roundup: State creation, judges' immunity, 2025 budget increase, other stories from House of Reps

Mourning Deputy Chief Whip

On Tuesday, the House adjourned its plenary session to honour its Deputy Chief Whip, Oriyomi Onanuga, who died while the lawmakers were on recess.

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The lawmakers convened adjourned after a prayer for the late lawmaker, who represented the Ikenne/Sagamu/Remo Federal Constituency of Ogun State.

President Tinubu’s request for budget increase

In a surprise twist on Wednesday, President Tinubu sent a letter to the National Assembly announcing additional funds for the 2025 budget.

In the request, the president sought to increase the 2025 budget from N49.7 trillion to N54.3 trillion and attached details of the sectors he wants the funds to be allocated.

While the majority of lawmakers appeared to be pleased with the request, Minority Leader Kingsley Chinda raised concerns about how to proceed with it.

He argued that if there were additional funds, the National Assembly should decide how to allocate them—whether to fund the 2024 budget, which is still running or to use them as they deem fit.

“I just listened to the deputy speaker present a very wonderful budget speech, but I know that is not the function of a parliamentarian. A budget presented to the parliament does not come by way of a letter.

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“What we got today as a letter—the procedure might not be right. If we have additional funding for last year, we may recall that the 2024 budget is still running, it has not been completed, and we are still crying for additional funds,” he said.

The Deputy Speaker, Ben Kalu, who presided over the session, ruled the minority leader out of order.

He said since the process of passing the budget was still ongoing, the president was right to send a letter for additional projects and funding. He subsequently referred the request to the House Committee on Appropriations for further action.

Meanwhile, the minority leader’s position that a budget proposal cannot be sent by letter may not be entirely correct. Subsidiary budgets and budget increments have often been communicated via letter. In 2024, the president sent a letter to the National Assembly requesting to increase that year’s budget.

Controversies over state creation requests

The House has received about 31 constitution alteration bills seeking the creation of new states.

Mr Kalu, the Chairman of the House Committee on Constitution Review, announced this on Wednesday during the plenary session.

The deputy speaker, who presided over the session, said some of the bills’ sponsors had not met the requirements for state creation stipulated by Section 8 of the 1999 Constitution.

Two-day debate on immunity for judges

On Wednesday and Thursday, lawmakers debated a bill seeking to protect judges from criminal prosecution.

Solomon Bob (PDP, Rivers) sponsored the bill, which seeks to amend the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunals Act. The debate on its general principles began on Wednesday, but some members argued that it contravenes Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution, which confers immunity on some government heads.

Clement Jimbo, a lawmaker from Akwa Ibom, pointed out that the constitution clearly states who is exempt from prosecution, and judges are not among them.

However, Mr Bob argued that the proposed amendment did not conflict with Section 308 of the Constitution. Because many members did not have copies of the bill, it was stepped down until members obtained the copies.

When the debate resumed on Thursday, the bill passed its second reading.

Many who supported the bill did so to prevent a repeat of the trial of the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, while those opposed to it cited constitutional grounds.

Life imprisonment for fake product dealers

NAFDAC continues to discover large consignments of adulterated and fake products at an alarming rate.

Last week, the House passed a resolution urging the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, to develop a bill prescribing life imprisonment for peddlers of adulterated products.

The resolution followed a motion of urgent public importance moved by Muktar Shagaya (APC, Kwara).

However, it remains unclear why the House is not directly introducing a law to that effect instead of calling on the attorney general to propose the bill.

Abuse of “Motion of Urgent Public Importance”

Last week, the House continued to overuse motions of urgent public importance. In that week alone, the House considered many such motions.

Ordinarily, motions are to be listed in the weekly notice paper and also provided on the daily Order Paper. However, exceptions are made for motions that are urgent.

Yet, on Wednesday alone, there were about 11 motions of urgent public importance, though the House could only consider five.

On Thursday, the lawmakers considered about 12 motions of urgent public importance, many of which could not genuinely be classified as “urgent.”